Shattering Silence
by Cecelia S. Bradley
Summary: One summer, a horrific misunderstanding, and two people left forever changed. Somewhere in there, though, a promise of hope.


Good night.

Good riddance.

I'm so sorry.

Let all of those bed bugs bite.

I miss you.

_Silence_.

)(

It was an abomination, that's what it was. To be called inside when in the middle of collecting fossils for what? A televised interview between the Queen of England and the head of the new art dealership of _Britain?_ Her mother had told her that it was important to see the family of the art dealer because they were special or something, but still. Honestly.

Hope trudged up the steps of the house and into the living room, lugging her fossils with her. Her mother beckoned to her from the couch, a wan smile on her face, and Hope walked over to her, turning her attention to the television. She might as well get this over with.

The TV displayed, almost proudly, a middle-aged woman discussing something with a tall, snake-looking man. His teenage daughter and younger son stood behind him. Hope watched as the boy subtly took out a match and lighted it, and she giggled, but it turned to gasps when he brought close to the girl's hair. Her mother's eyes hardened.

"Meet the Kabras. Don't forget the name."

It was the first time she saw him.

).(

He skipped the line and strode to the ticket counter, inwardly sneering at the populace lined up, still waiting behind him, and demanded one ticket. She looked at him with apprehension in her eyes, but sold it to him and moved on to the next customer. It was incredible how much a person could get away with if they looked like they were in authority. But then again, he reminded himself, they were commoners. What did he expect?

He traveled quickly to the confines of the Department of Asia, glanced quickly at the security guard to make sure she was not a sneaking Tomas, and then stepped inside. Most teenagers would have hated having to spend time here, but nineteen-year old Vikram considered it a second home. Ignoring the masses of commoners, that was. Here, he could escape his father's ever-present, cold, hardened gaze, forget that he would have to marry and commence the Clue hunt in two years, pretend that he was normal. Not that he didn't thoroughly enjoy being above the masses, just that it was something new and novelty even had charms for the best of the best.

Vikram was just beginning to appreciate a slightly abstract Kaizhi painting when he heard a clatter behind him. He turned around just in time to catch a red-headed girl on crutches tumbling to the ground.

"I am so, so sorry," she muttered as she tried to pick herself up again. With both crutches on the floor, though, she couldn't and so ended up in the same position after her attempts. The security guard gave her the crutches, and told the girl to be more careful, and she, blushing to the roots of her auburn hair, promised and apologized a million times.

This gave Vikram time to study here. Striking green eyes, approximately average height, rounded face, decent style for a peasant. Interesting. He decided to pull out his "better self" with her.

"Are you okay?"

She glanced up, then realized she was still leaning against him. "Yes, yes, I'm fine. I'm really sorry." She righted herself against her crutches.

"I'm Vikram. What's your name? Are you from England? You seem to have an American accent."

The girl seemed to jump at the name, but quickly calmed down. "Um, Natalie. No, I'm from Massachusetts. I'm here on a summer program from my college."

"Really? Are you enjoying it?" Vikram escorted her out of the room, out of the museum, and to a bench outside, where they proceeded to talk for half an hour before arranging to meet there the next day.

He would never forget the first time he met her.

)..(

Hope could tell he was slightly suspicious of her. It was her fault; she didn't know why she had picked Natalie as her name. She should have picked something closer to hers, something that fit her better and wouldn't confuse her. But no, she had gone on a whim and said Natalie. And she couldn't afford to have Vikram distrust her right now.

"So, have you traveled much?" A subtle poke, a slight move to figure out his part in the Clue hunt.

"A bit, yes. My parents, though, they have traveled a great deal. They enjoy…treasure-hunting and simply traveling the globe, you could say."

"Oh, my mom loved to do that, too." No need to lie here. She really wanted to lie as little as possible. After all, Vikram was being so very kind to her. "When she was little, she ran away from home just to see a bit more of the world."

"Are you doing that, too?" he asked her, jabbing his straw in her direction. "Have I come across a runaway?"

"Mark, no. I really just got lucky enough to be sent here for the summer. I'll be returning in September."

"Ah, a runaway with a planned return—excuse me. Did you call me Mark?"

"Um, yes."

He gave her a puzzled stare.

"Vikramseemedtooformalto—"

"Slow down and repeat, _s'il vous plait_."

"_Vous parlez francais?_"

_"Bien sur_, now please do explain."

Hope sighed and started over again. "'Vikram' seemed too formal to me, and so I sort of just took the last four letters of your name, flipped them, and came up with a normal-person name." It had also been so she wouldn't feel so guilty about not sharing her real name, but that she wasn't going to tell him. "Where did your parents come up with that name from?"

"They're leaders of, well, a good many things, and they're hoping that I'll take over after they're gone, and so they just gave me a commanding name. Why?"

"Oh, no reason. I was just wondering if there was a pattern, as my mother named us all for different traits and things."

"And which characteristic is _Natalie_, pray tell?"

Shoot. "I'm the odd duckling, I suppose."

"You're not too bad, for an odd duckling."

The smile he was giving her…she couldn't describe it. She just knew she wanted him to smile a bit more.

)…(

He really wasn't interested in her, of course. It was just an act of rebellion against his father. He wouldn't ever care for a commoner.

Who was he kidding?

He sighed and banged his fist into his pillow. Never before had he met a girl so enthralling, so captivating, so beautiful and intelligent. He had thought something was up with her at first, admittedly, but he had lost that fear quite a time ago. And now, as he prepared for their third official date, he found himself deciding how the name _Natalie Kabra_ sounded.

He thought it was perfect.

She had picked a simple restaurant in London, but he still felt the need to at least wear a suit jacket or something. He wrestled with the decision for at least ten minutes before quickly putting it on, picking up a small box on his dresser, and dignifiedly racing out the door.

Natalie was waiting for him there, a smile on her lips that sparkled in the August sun. He quickly walked to her side and put his elbow through hers. "Shall we commence in, Miss Natalie?"

"Of course," she laughed, and he felt something tug in his heart he was sure he hadn't felt before.

Their dinner arrived quickly, and they slipped into casual, bantering, even flirtatious conversation before Vikram reached into his pocket and pulled out the box he had brought with him. "I have a present for you, Natalie."

She leaned forward eagerly. "Can I look, Mark?"

"No, close your eyes."

He could see her hesitate, but she complied. He slipped the necklace onto her and fastened it. "Look now. Do you like it?"

She gasped in astonishment. "It's beautiful. My word, Mark, you didn't have to…what does it say?"

"It says 'hope.' I thought it seemed fitting; don't—is something the matter?"

She had turned pale and clasped the necklace in her hands. "Did you say 'Hope'?"

"Yes, 'hope.' Why?" He glanced at her, and he saw that she was sweating all of a sudden. "Are you okay, Natalie?"

"Don't hurt me; I had to, I swear. How much did you find out? Did you find out about the Madrig—oh, no."

He looked at her in bewilderment, then in horror as her words registered in his mind.

"Natalie, did you say 'Madrigal'? Answer me now, are you a Madrigal? Have you been spying on me?"

She appeared just as horrified as he did. "Vikram, so you didn't know?"

"Didn't know you were a Madrigal? Didn't know who you really were? How long were you going to lie to me?"

"I-I didn't want to, please, Vikram, don't tell—"

He grabbed her shoulder. "Tell me your name. Natalie _what_?"

His black eyes burned like black holes and bars of fire, and it was all she could do to wrench herself away. She grabbed her purse and hurried out of the door. "I'm sorry," her eyes said as she looked back one final time before running out into the darkness.

He chased behind her, watching to make sure she was gone forever. "I hope I never see you again! Don't come back!"

)..(

How had it gone that wrong? She had thought he had known her name, she had slipped, she had left…it was her fault. It was her fault, and she didn't know what to do. Her mother had always told her, though, to make up for wrongs, and that was the only thing she could think of. She hurried to the art dealership.

"Excuse me, sir?" She stopped a man in a business suit abruptly. "Where do the Kabras live?"

The man wrote down the address on a business card and hurried on his way. Hope stared at it for a few minutes, trying to figure out where that was in the city, then rushed off into the night.

Within twenty minutes, she had arrived at the Kabra mansion. Looking at the high walls surrounding the palace-like place, she smiled grimly as she realized her training would come in handy. Over, over, down, jump, and she was inside.

Vikram had told her he lived at the very back of his house. She ran around the grounds until she came upon a single isolated room in the back with a candle burning inside. _Two stories up_. But she could do it.

Climbing up the wall was like trying to clamber up a glass pyramid. Hope slipped four times in the first minute, fortunately from less than five feet above the ground each time. She realized she couldn't go this way, though. Hope made her way to a trellis ten yards away and silently scaled it, then crept along the long window ledge silently before jumping to Vikram's. She took a deep breath, steadied herself, and knocked on the window.

She could see Vikram opening the window and looking out, then realizing she was there. He immediately began to slam the window down again.

"Wait! I'll fall!"

He stared at her for a moment, then smiled bitterly. "And this would be a problem _why_?"

"Vikram, please. I wasn't trying to deceive you, and I wasn't even spying on you. I was just trying to stay safe. I'm so sorry."

"You're a Madrigal. The only branch more feared than the Lucians. How did you think this would work? Were you planning to kill me all this time?"

"No! I would never do that. Besides, I love you." She uttered the last words so softly he barely caught them, and a lump rose in his throat.

"It doesn't matter, anyway, Natalie. You killed me already. How am I supposed to live when I loved a Madrigal?"

"Vikram…Mark. Please. I'm sorry."

"You've said that too many times. Now do something, and leave me before I forget myself and slam this window down."

"I mean it, Mark. G-good night."

"Good riddance, you mean."

"I'm so sorry. Please forgive me, someday."

"Look, I don't care what happens to you any more, Natalie. Let those wretched bed bugs bite, for all I care."

"Don't forget me. I'll miss you. I _do_ miss you."

The only sound was the slamming of the window pane down against the wall. Three seconds' silence, and then a sob burst from the bedroom above her.

It was all Hope could do not to join in.

).(

Vikram stormed out of the Attleboro house, Isabel right behind them.

"They thought they could get away and hide that, but no such luck, wouldn't you say, Vikram?" she purred.

"Don't talk to me right yet. We have to do something." He couldn't shake the look on Hope Cahill's face as she stared into his eyes. He needed to move past that.

His wife's face lit up beside him. "We need those clues. Desperate times call for desperate measures, don't they?"

He nodded absentmindedly, barely registering that she had left his side.

Until two minutes later, when he heard the shouts.

"Fire!"

"Arthur, the kids!"

"Serves them right."

He looked up and saw the Cahill family home ablaze, and Isabel calmly walking around the side of the house. "No matter what anybody says, Vikram, you _know_ that the fire was an accident."

"Somebody help them!" He could hear Mary-Todd shouting, but Isabel shushed her with a look. All the adults gathered outside the house began to run away as the fire grew and grew. Vikram could see figures moving in and outside the house, cries for help, the little boy crying, Arthur shouting commands to his wife.

"Mark, remember Natalie!"

Vikram froze.

"Natalie?"

Isabel came up beside him. "Silly, your daughter's at home. Now, come."

And he could only watch as his first love burst into flames.

)(

The cemetery was far from where any of the clues were located, and he had no business in Massachusetts anyway, but he had to come back. This was so far from the classic grave scene, he saw as he looked into the sunny heavens, but their relationship had been so far from normal, in the first place.

_Who would let a loved one die?_

He had to get it over with. If his wife or his children saw him, they wouldn't understand and his reputation for hardness would be shattered. He had to speak, though. Break the silence.

"Hope? I just understood the restaurant incident. If I had known…what were the chances that I would pick _that word_? What if none of this had happened? Could it have worked? Natalie, I'm rambling. Forgive me. And I hope you don't mind that I call you Natalie. That's what you told me, and you're my Natalie, at least. You know, I named my daughter after you? Maybe she can be like you someday."

Vikram knelt by the tiny gravestone and laid a single rose on the top. He stared at the name on the gravestone, as if reading the words enough would pierce through the cold stone and bring her back. _Hope Grace Cahill Hope Grace Cahill Hope Grace—_she was gone.

"Natalie, please forgive me. If I had known, I swear none of this would have happened…Are you smiling right now? I bet you can see me up in heaven, so please be smiling. Who would have thought I would come to talking to stones in abandoned graveyards? I need to, though, Natalie. Please forgive me, someday. I know that you found your happiness with Arthur, and he's a lucky man, to be sure, but Natalie? I still remember you. And I know that you and Arthur are happy up there together, but wait for me, too. Please. I love you."

Vikram walked away from the tombstone, then looked back.

_ Goodbye. I'm sorry. I miss you_.

Shattering silence. And in the silence, Hope.


End file.
